British baritone Hugo Herman-Wilson is rapidly gaining recognition for
his versatile performances in both opera and concert. A former member
of the Young Artist Programme of Les Arts Florissants and Britten-Pears
Young Artist, Hugo is also a recipient of the Help Musicians UK
Maidment Award. He studied at King’s College, Cambridge and the Royal
College of Music.
Most recent and future engagements include his Glyndebourne debut in
Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, title role Le Nozze di Figaro (Oxford Opera), creating the role of Papageno in Damon Albarn’s The Magic
Flute II: The Curse at Théâtre du Lido, Paris. Hugo will also perform
The Fairy Queen with Vox Luminis in Europe, and with Les Arts
Florissants in South America.
Further engagements include notable debuts at several
prestigious festivals, including Lucerne, George Enescu, Tanglewood,
and the BBC Proms, and performances at Lincoln Center New York,
La Scala Milan, and the Philarmonie de Paris in a production of
Purcell’s The Fairy Queen with Les Arts Florissants.
On the concert platform, Hugo has performed a wide range of
repertoire, including a programme of Schütz and Praetorius with
Jonathan Cohen at Wigmore Hall. He has also appeared at the
Aldeburgh Festival and the SmorgasChord Festival, and was an
audience prize winner at the Somerset Song Prize. He has performed
solos in various Bach Cantatas with the Orchestra of the Age of
Enlightenment and appeared at the London Handel Festival.
On the operatic stage, Hugo’s recent and upcoming roles include The
Notary The Sorcerer and Don Basilio Il Barbiere di Siviglia for
Charles Court Opera, as well as covering Monsieur Presto Les
Mamelles de Tirésias and The Notary Don Pasquale (Glyndebourne Opera). He has also covered Bartolo Il Barbiere di
Siviglia and Krusina The Bartered Bride (Garsington Opera), and
performed Dottore Grenvil La Traviata (Nevill Holt and Oxford
Opera).
Among the rest of the large cast, excellent diction and stylish ornamentation came as standard, with particularly charismatic turns from Hugo Herman-Wilson
Hugo Herman-Wilson had power to burn as a skunk-toting, black nail varnish-wearing 'Dan' Basilio
The music teacher Basilio is now 'Dan Basilio', a gross preacher whose ode to slander is thunderously delivered by Hugo Herman-Wilson
The singers included some notable young talents... Hugo Herman-Wilson amusingly dealt with the work's comic moments
Two musical numbers, as opposite as could be, were among the musical highlights. Comedic delight was provided by tenor Ilja Aksionov and baritone Hugo Herman-Wilson in the ‘Dialogue between Coridon and Mopsa’.
It was baritone Hugo Herman-Wilson, a real stage animal, who dominated the ensemble, though, with acting and singing of great subtlety and wit.